Bahaipedia:Contributing to Bahaipedia

B:C

Contributing to Bahaipedia is an easy and essential way to support the project and keep it going. As an independent project, Bahaipedia depends on the participation of volunteer editors (like you!) to expand and improve coverage of a growing variety of Bahá’í-related topics. Contributions can be simple, like copy-editing or categorizing articles, or they can be more complex, like developing articles, or looking up and citing reliable article sources.

How can I help?[edit]

Point out problems[edit]

A lot of people get started on wiki's because they are reading an article and think to themselves "that's not right...". If you know just what to do to fix something that isn't right — great, go for it; but if you aren't sure what to do, here's an approach with which you can never really go wrong. Simply navigate to the "Discussion" page associated with the article, and make a comment on what you think needs changing. Remember to end your comment with four tildes like this ~~~~, which will timestamp your comment.

Create new articles[edit]

Wiki articles contain lots of links to other articles. Blue (or purple, if you have already visited them) links represent pages that do exist. Red links (or tan, if you have already visited them) point to pages that don't yet exist. Whoever created these links thought that an article on the topic should exist. If this was not a popular idea, the link may have been removed. It's also possible that a spelling error was made, or that they didn't know the correct name for an existing page on the same (or a more general) topic. In this case, you could fix the link, or create a redirect. If you decide there should be an article at the other end of the link, by all means start writing it!

In addition to looking for red links, you can look at a list of requested articles, and pick one you know something about.

Please read Bahaipedia:Your first article for additional advice about how, why, and when not to create a new article.

Tips[edit]

Don't be surprised if other people edit your pages to adapt them to our policies. It's OK to learn as you go along.

New articles which do not comply with Bahaipedia:Bahá’í point of view and Bahaipedia:Verifiability, and articles on obscure topics are often quickly nominated for deletion. Please don't take this personally. Sometimes inappropriate material needs to be pruned to allow a short article to grow into a long one in a healthy way, and sometimes it just so happens that an article needs to be pruned all the way to the roots. New articles need a firm seed to get started. If you are having problems of this kind, you may wish to learn about Bahaipedia's policies before trying again, or spend some time editing existing articles until you get the hang of things. Bahaipedia:Your first article is an excellent introduction.

Where can I start?[edit]

Start with a list of things that need doing!

The lists you see below contain a wealth of starting points loaded with things to do on Bahaipedia. You can also look through categories for things like articles to be expanded‎, articles lacking sources or articles with unsourced statements to find ways to help Bahaipedia.

Pages to create or expand[edit]

Wanted pages:

Requested articles:

People

Places

Other Topics

More requested articles

All wanted pages

Selected short articles:

Peru • November 15 • 1782 • July 31 • Asmá’ • 1790s • 97 BE • 1828 • Virginia Beach, Virginia • May 11 • November 5 • Wilmington, Delaware • Ulan-Ude • NSA:Eastern and Southern Arabia • December 20 • Nunki • 8 ‘Aẓamat • Thoe Cope • Aguascalientes • November 4

Articles not updated in longest time:

Berita Bahá’í - 2010-01-13
WLGI - 2010-10-27
Goals of the Nine Year Plan (1964-1973) - 2010-10-29
Teuto Rocholl - 2010-12-06
Portal:Contents/Overviews/Schools - 2013-04-29

Selected articles with fewest revisions:

Selected articles needing translation:

Puebla • Fourth International Convention • Táhirih Arjumandí Síyávushí • David Tanyi • Youth for the World (YOW) Conferences • 1915 • Baha'i Public Speaking • Aḥmad (son of the Báb) • Amín-i-Amín • The Bahá’í Gardens in the Holy Land • Ahváz • 1998 • Cayman Islands

Start with what you know[edit]

Look through Category:Articles needing attention to find articles that have been tagged as needing expansion or improvement. These often need contributions from people who know something about the subject!

Make a list of everything you know. Strike through the things that are not verifiable or outside the scope of Bahaipedia. Then, find the proper places to write about the items remaining on the list. Use the search, or just navigate by following links. Click the "What links here" link on pages you visit.

Things you might know about...[edit]

Things you have already done research on. Have you written a thesis, essay, or school paper? Consider contributing the fruits of your efforts to related Bahaipedia articles. You probably don't want to dump the raw text of your essay into the wiki. First of all, there will almost certainly be an existing article which you will want to merge your content into. Secondly, Bahaipedia is an encyclopedia. Articles that are not written in an encyclopedic style or from a Baha'i point of view should be rewritten that way, or at least tagged {{BPOV}}. Also keep in mind that Bahaipedia is not a place to post original research. This means that if you make a new discovery or come up with a new theory, you should find someplace else to post it. What we are about is researching and summarizing ideas and information that have already been publicized elsewhere. Most papers written up to the undergraduate level do exactly this.
Current or historical events. Bahaipedia articles constantly need to be updated to reflect recent developments. If you read a news story on the Bahá’í World News Service or your favourite national news site, check Bahaipedia's coverage on the topic! You can also check WikiProject Chronology for some suggested topics, or search through the Chronology portal to see what happened in certain years or dates, or during a particular Plan.
Do you know a foreign language? Add interlanguage links to articles! Sign up to WikiProject Translation and translate one of our core articles—you can also check above for a selection of articles needing translation.
Your college or university. Check for its article on the list of colleges and universities.
Specific places, such as countries, provinces, counties, cities, and towns. Maybe one you've lived in, maybe one you like to visit. Look through the Geography and Places portal to find a place of interest. (But remember Bahaipedia is not a travel guide; see WikiProject Geography's Manual of Style.)
What are your favorite Bahá’í-related subjects? See if they're covered in our Topics portal.
What are your favorite Bahá’í books? Sign up to WikiProject Works and have a look at the Publications portal to see if they've been written about.
Do you know of a notable Bahá’í who should have an encyclopedia article? Sign up to WikiProject Biography and look for them on the People portal, and the list of Bahá’ís. Does their article need to be created? Are they properly categorized?
Have you served on a Bahá’í institution, past or present? Look it up on the Institutions portal. Be sure to review the scope and guidelines of WikiProject Geography, which covers Bahá’í institutions.
Do you have a favourite organization, Bahá’í-inspired or otherwise? Check for it on the Organizations portal.

Start on a random page[edit]

Visit a random page and jump into the rabbit hole! You can also try one of the following links if you want to take on a specific kind of challenge:

Random short article - Work on a page that needs expansion.
Articles needing sources or citations - If you prefer doing research.

Start with outside research[edit]

Feed your appetite for knowledge. Pick a subject about which you know relatively little but have always been curious or want to remedy a guilty ignorance. If you already know a lot about something, the best references in the field might know more, or might be a helpful reference for other readers or helpful to you in your writing.

Try to find good online and print resources, both books and magazines. Using good references is a way of improving Bahaipedia, which will be increasingly important as Bahaipedia grows and becomes more and more relevant. Then cite your sources. By citing sources you avoid copyright violations and plagiarism as long as you use only acceptable portions of other works. Doing research also makes it easier to think of material to add and allows you to improve any article, even one you didn't know much about.

Write about something you don't know about. Use this as an excuse to research a new topic. As you learn about it, write what you are learning here on Bahaipedia. This is actually a good study aid because it forces you to take notes, to organize information, and to put what you've learned into your own words. You can find more suggestions on writing a good article at Bahaipedia:Article development.

Find something from a public domain resource, update it, add links to it, and put it here (but make sure it really isn't copyrighted—see Bahaipedia copyrights).

Things you might want to learn about:

What interesting things happened today in history? What interesting things have happened on your birthday? Search by starting at Category:Months.